Timepiece



Nov. 22, 1927. 1,650,123

- Y A. J. GRlTTON 'I'IMEPIECE Filed June 1926 BY M ATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 22, 1927.

UNITED STATES ALPHEUS J. GRITION, or FAIRMONT, MINNESOTA.

TIMEPIECE.

Application filed June 1,

My invention relates to improvements in time pieces, such as watches, clocks and the like, and it consists in the combinations, co'nstructions, and arrangements herein described and claimed.

An object of my invention is to provide a time piece having movable dials in lieu of hands, by means of which the time may be indicated.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device of the type described, having movable dials, one containing figures in dicating hours, and the other containing ligures indicating minutes, theiite dials being set relative to one another, so that when they are moved by the works of the time piece, the figures take positions which indicate the time.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming part of this application, in which Figure 1 is a face view of the clock constructed according to my invention, showing the dials in one position,

Figure 2 is a view showing the dials in another position,

Figure 3 is a section of a portion of the device along the line 3-3 of Figure 1, and

Figure I a face view of a watch made in accordance with the invention.

In carrying out my invention, I make use of a clock orwatch movement of any suitable construction. In the drawings, I have shown the invention as applied to a clock. In Figure l, I have indicated the clock casing at 1, which may house any suitable mechanism or gearing, a portion of which is shown in general at 2 in Figure 3. In the latter figure, I have indicated the minute hand spindle at 3 and the hour hand spindle at 4:. The clock face is shown at 5.

Secured to the minute hand spindle there is a transparent resilient disk 6 made of celluloid or other suitable material to prevent breaking, and a similar disk 7 is secured to the hour spindle 4. These two disks are preferably of different diameter, as shown in Figure 3, for a purpose hereinafter set forth.

The clock face 5 is provided with radial lines 8, beyond the edge of the disk 7 which correspond to the five-minute intervals.

1926. Serial No. 113,054.

This clock face, of course, is stationary and does not move so that the lines 8 are stationary.

The minute disk is provided with figures to indicate minutes and is also provided with a row of dots 9, each dot standing for a particular minute.

The hour disk 7 is provided with a series of numerals to indicate hours, each numeral having associated therewith a dot '10, as shown in the drawings. The disk 6 being transparent, the numerals on the disk 7 as well as the radial lines 8 on theclock face 5 can be readily observed.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, the operation thereof may be readily understood. In set ting the clock or watch for indicating time, I may use any of a number of positions but in order to render the explanation more clear I have indicated the number on the minute disk 6 as being in registration with one of the radial lines 8 on the clock face. The hour disk 7 is now set with the numeral 12 and its associated dot registering with the numeral 60 and the mark 8. The reading with the clock thus set would be 12 oclock.

The clock is wound in the usual way. It will be apparent that what I have done is to substitute for the minute and the hour hands respectively transparent disks, bearing numerals as stated. It will be apparent that both disks will revolve to the right, the same as the hands of a clock.

Consider now the position of the disks in Figure 2. In this figure the hour disk 7 has moved to the right past the hour numeral 1. while the minute disk has moved to the right so as to bring the dot standing for the twenty-fourth minute into registration with the line 8 on the face of the clock. The reading therefore would be twenty-four minutes after one, or, in other words, 1 24. Similarly, any other time may be observed by considering the relative positions of the hour and minute hands with respect to the mark 8 in Figure 2.

As will be seen fromFigure 3, the outer disk 6 extends underneath the bezel of the clock, thus serving as a protection from dust. The face 5 extends beyond the edge of the disk 7 so that in viewing the marks on the clock face, as well as those on the disk 7, one

has only to look through the single disk 6.

l/Vhile I have'taken that mark 8 at the top of the figure as being the point from which the reading is taken it is obvious that any of these marks 8 may be so taken, if desired, so that if one should want to use the clock as a novelty with which he could. tell the time to the mystification of others, he could set the disks at any relative position for a given time, and keeping in mind the relative position, could, of course, tell the time when others might not be able to do this. Any such rearrangements of the relative positions of the hour and minute disks are contemplated in my invention.

In Figure 4 I have shown a modified form of the device as applied to a watch W. The arrangement of the disks and the manner in which they are read is precisely the same as that set forth in connection with the clock shown in Figure 1. The setting of the time reading point is done through changing position of the 12 to 1 gear.

I claim:

A time piece comprising a shaft, a transparent disk secured to said shaft and having numerals indicating minutes a sleeve surrounding the shaft, a smaller circular disk secured. to said. sleeve in parallelism with said first-named disk and having a concentric row of numerals to indicate hours the edge of the smaller disk lying bet-ween the two rows of numerals, and a stationary clock face in the rear of said disks having a mark thereon out side of the edge of the smaller disk and beneath the overlapping margin of the larger disk to serve as a base for calculating the time from the movement of the disks.

ALPHEUS J. GRITTON. 

